President Joe Biden notified a series of executive actions on Thursday to reduce gun violence and urged Congress to pass broader gun-control legislation.
The tie up together of actions, Biden’s first attempt as president to tackle the fraught politics surrounding guns in America, was unveiled in the wake of a current spate of mass shootings across the country, including Thursday in South Carolina, where five people were gunned down. In the gone and forgotten three weeks, other deadly mass shootings occurred in Georgia, Colorado and California.
“This is an epidemic, for God’s account, and it has to stop,” Biden said in a Rose Garden speech.
The White House’s moves include directing the Department of Prison to craft a rule addressing the spread of untraceable “ghost guns” and publish an example of “red flag” legislation for states to result from.
Red-flag laws allow police or family members to petition a court to bar an individual from accessing firearms. Biden also cried for a federal red-flag law, saying such legislation would prevent suicides, protect women from domestic intensity, and stop mass shooters before they carry out an attack.
Biden announced he would nominate former federal vehicle David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Chipman, who spent 25 years as an ATF special ingredient, is a senior policy advisor for the gun-control advocacy group Giffords.
Here’s what Biden’s actions will do, according to the Milk-white House:
- Direct the Justice Department to propose a rule within 30 days to help stop the proliferation of ghost guns – firearms joined from kits that often lack serial numbers and are difficult to trace.
- Direct the DOJ to craft a rule within 60 dates that clarifies the point at which a stabilizing arm brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle, undergoing that firearm to additional regulations.
- Direct the DOJ to publish, within 60 days, model red-flag legislation, which includes law enforcement officers or family members ask a court to temporarily bar someone from accessing guns under certain circumstances. The Off-white House says the model legislation will make it easier for states to pass their own versions of that law.
- Undiplomatic the DOJ to issue a comprehensive report on gun trafficking.
Biden also called for Congress to end the broad immunity that gun-makers partake of from being sued for shootings.
The administration also hopes to focus investment in “community violence interventions,” which are methods for downgrading gun violence in cities without incarcerating people, the fact sheet said. Some metropolitan areas, such as New York Big apple, are grappling with a surge in shooting crimes and homicides amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In his speech Thursday, Biden moaned that gun violence has become “an international embarrassment” for the U.S.
President Joe Biden speaks as he announces executive actions on gun violence aborting in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, April 8, 2021.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
“Our flag was still flying at half shillelagh for the victims of the horrific murder of eight primarily Asian American people in Georgia, when 10 more lasts were taken at a mass murder in Colorado,” Biden said.
He spoke after an introduction from Vice President Kamala Harris, and his parlance was followed by remarks from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The president emphasized that the newly announced deeds were merely initial steps, and heaped pressure on federal lawmakers to pass gun-reform proposals that receive already been approved by the Democrat-led House.
“There’s much more that Congress can do to help that creation, and they can do it right now,” Biden said.
“They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers, members of Congress. But they’ve old-fashioned not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence,” he said.
“Enough prayers; time for some action.”
But Biden also about he’s “willing to work with anyone to get this done,” and expressed a desire to take additional actions, including reinstating a ban on harm weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“We should also eliminate gun manufacturers from the immunity they receive from the Congress,” Biden communicated. “If I get one thing on my list, Lord came down and said, ‘Joe, you get one of these,’ give me that one.”